Natural disaster induced cognitive disruption: Impacts on action slips

Exploring the role of digital media dependency on the relationship between personal involvement and flashbulb memory during the pandemic: Empirical evidence from Mainland China

Flashbulb memory (FBM) is viewed as a special type of autobiographical memory due to its richness of individuals’ self-related details when hearing the news and the long duration. It also helps shape people’s impression of public events to some extent. Given that personal involvement is one of the important antecedent variables of FBM, this study proposed to investigate it from spatiotemporal involvement (spatiotemporal distance) and empathic involvement (empathy level) to explore the impact of personal involvement on the formation of FBM during the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, digital media dependency was considered in the influence of involvement on the FBM since it is a crucial information source for individuals and a path to spread information about their lives and work during the pandemic. In this study, a total of 546 valid questionnaires (from May 1, 2022, to May 7, 2022) and 349 valid questionnaires (from May 10, 2022, to May 17, 2022) were collected through a two-stage online survey in Shanghai, China towards the epidemic wave at the end of March 2022. The mediating mode of digital media dependency was also examined on personal involvement in FBM performance, which consists of FBM specificity, confidence, and consistency. Results showed that empathic involvement had a significant negative influence on FBM specificity, namely the higher the empathy level was, the worse the FBM specificity would be, in which digital media dependency played a suppressing effect. Individuals’ spatiotemporal involvement was proved to have a significant positive influence on FBM specificity and consistency. It was one of the first to investigate the FBM formation process around “small peak” events in the context of the ongoing pandemic. Innovatively, empathy was adopted as the index of memory arousal for empathic involvement, and digital media dependency was considered an important mediator variable in the memory study. The research results have practical significance for promoting the process of epidemic recovery integrated with digital media and can provide a social reference for the shaping process of disaster memory from the perspective of digital information and emotional transmission.

Beginning of the Pandemic: COVID-19-Elicited Anxiety as a Predictor of Working Memory Performance

Increasing evidence indicates that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is associated with adverse psychological effects, including heightened levels of anxiety. This study examined whether COVID-19-related anxiety levels during the early stage of the pandemic predicted demanding working memory (WM) updating performance. Altogether, 201 healthy adults (age range, 18-50) mostly from North America and the British Isles were recruited to this study via the crowdsourcing site www.prolific.co. The results showed that higher levels of COVID-19-related anxiety during the first weeks of the pandemic outbreak were associated with poorer WM performance as measured by the n-back paradigm. Critically, the unique role of COVID-19-related anxiety on WM could not be explained by demographic factors, or other psychological factors such as state and trait anxiety or fluid intelligence. Moreover, across three assessment points spanning 5-6 weeks, COVID-19-related anxiety levels tended to decrease over time. This pattern of results may reflect an initial psychological "shock wave" of the pandemic, the cognitive effects of which may linger for some time, albeit the initial anxiety associated with the pandemic would change with habituation and increasing information. Our results contribute to the understanding of cognitive-affective reactions to a major disaster.

The quick and the dead: A paradigm for studying friendly fire

The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) is a computer based Go-No-Go response task. Participants respond to frequently occurring neutral stimuli and withhold responses to rare target stimuli. Researchers have suggested the inhibition demands of the SART may mirror those which occur in some firearm accidents. Participants in the present experiment used a simulated nonlethal weapon to subdue threats (images of people holding guns) on large screens. Participants completed a target rich task (high Go low No-Go, like a SART), a target sparse task (low Go/high No-Go), a verbal recall task, and dual versions of the target rich and target sparse tasks with the verbal recall task as the secondary task. Results provided further evidence that some accidental shootings may result from failures of response inhibition and that additional cognitive load is detrimental to overall performance. Future studies should explore the role of response inhibition in realistic firearm scenarios.

Individual Differences in Self-Talk Frequency: Social Isolation and Cognitive Disruption

Despite the popularity of research on intrapersonal communication across many disciplines, there has been little attention devoted to the factors that might account for individual differences in talking to oneself. In this paper, I explore two possible explanations for why people might differ in the frequency of their self-talk. According to the “social isolation” hypothesis, spending more time alone or having socially isolating experiences will be associated with increased self-talk. According to the “cognitive disruption” hypothesis, having self-related experiences that are cognitively disruptive will be associated with increased self-talk frequency. Several studies using the Self-Talk Scale are pertinent to these hypotheses. The results indicate good support for the social isolation hypothesis and strong support for the cognitive disruption hypothesis. I conclude the paper with a wide range of implications for future research on individual differences in self-talk and other kinds of intrapersonal communication.

Regional differences in the psychological recovery of Christchurch residents following the 2010/2011 earthquakes: a longitudinal study

We examined changes in psychological distress experienced by residents of Christchurch following two catastrophic earthquakes in late 2010 and early 2011, using data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS), a national probability panel study of New Zealand adults. Analyses focused on the 267 participants (172 women, 95 men) who were living in central Christchurch in 2009 (i.e., before the Christchurch earthquakes), and who also provided complete responses to our yearly panel questionnaire conducted in late 2010 (largely between the two major earthquakes), late 2011, and late 2012. Levels of psychological distress were similar across the different regions of central Christchurch immediately following the September 2010 earthquake, and remained comparable across regions in 2011. By late 2012, however, average levels of psychological distress in the regions had diverged as a function of the amount of property damage experienced within each given region. Specifically, participants in the least damaged region (i.e., the Fendalton-Waimairi and Riccarton-Wigram wards) experienced greater drops in psychological distress than did those in the moderately damaged region (i.e., across the Spreydon-Heathcote and Hagley-Ferrymead wards). However, the level of psychological distress reported by participants in the most damaged region (i.e., across Shirley-Papanui and Burwood-Pegasus) were not significantly different to those in the least damaged region of central Christchurch. These findings suggest that different patterns of psychological recovery emerged across the different regions of Christchurch, with the moderately damaged region faring the worst, but only after the initial shock of the destruction had passed.

Cornering law: the difficulty of negotiating corners with an unmanned ground vehicle

OBJECTIVE

We investigated skill development and workload of pilots driving teleoperated unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) through different apertures and viewpoints using the cornering law.

BACKGROUND

Due to technological and cost restraints, humans are still needed for tasks involving UGVs. Operators of teleoperated UGVs are likely to have less situation awareness and thus are more prone to getting stuck or damaged when negotiating apertures.To our knowledge, the operation of physical UGVs through corners has not been examined. Therefore, a better understanding of cornering a teleoperated UGVs is imperative.

METHOD

In Experiment 1, 20 novice participants repeatedly teleoperated a physical UGV using a third-person overhead view through apertures that varied in width. In Experiment 2, 18 additional novice participants completed a similar task but used a first-person view.

RESULTS

Participants' performance increased (i.e., faster cornering times and less collisions) over sessions. The cornering law successfully modeled the effect of different aperture widths on participant performance for both viewing perspectives.

CONCLUSION

In this study, we successfully modeled human performance of teleoperated UGVs using the cornering law. Analogous to Fitts' and steering law, we were able to successfully model and predict cornering performance based on a derived index of cornering difficulty.

APPLICATION

The cornering law could be used to aid in the development of prototype user interfaces and also to examine the effects of different teleoperation views (first person vs. third person).

Individual Differences in Movements in Response to Natural Disasters

Natural disasters requiring travel to safety include hurricanes, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Computational models and agent-based simulations of disaster evacuation and travel behavior have been developed to help disaster planners; however, these models may entail unrealistic assumptions regarding uniform human behavior. Many of these models assume people travel immediately after a disaster notification and that people travel straight out of the area likely to be affected. The present study provides two examples from Christchurch, New Zealand: a small scale but detailed measure of travel behavior after a real tsunami warning was issued and a larger scale study of self-report of considerations of leaving the city after a major local earthquake. In the tsunami study, 15% of the people actually moved towards the tsunami risk zones, not away. In the second study only 11.7% of the 206 people surveyed indicated thinking of leaving the city and they were significantly more likely to be female and high in trait neuroticism. Individual differences in responses to natural disasters need to be considered in disaster travel models.

Intra-ethnic disparities in respiratory health problems among Hispanic residents impacted by a flood

OBJECTIVES

The primary objective of this article is to assess the respiratory health impacts of a flood disaster on Hispanic people residing in the United States, with a focus on intra-ethnic disparities related to age, sex, socioeconomic status, mold exposure, family conflict, English-language proficiency, and a lack of US citizenship.

METHODS

Data were collected in 2010 after a flood disaster (2006) in El Paso County (Texas), which has a Hispanic majority population. A mail-out population-based survey was used retrospectively to assess respiratory health impacts for 363 people residing in 176 self-identified Hispanic households impacted by the flood; logistic regression was utilized to assess intra-ethnic health disparities in flood impacts.

RESULTS

About 41% of individuals experienced one or more post-flood respiratory health problem. Lower income (OR = 0.532,p = .002), mold exposure (OR = 2.267, p < .001), increased family conflict (OR = 1.452, p = .025), English-language proficiency (OR = 4.023, p < .001) and a lack of US citizenship (OR = 13.111, p = .013) were significantly associated with higher odds of respiratory health problems in the regression model.

CONCLUSION

Statistical findings provide evidence of intra-ethnic disparities in post-flood respiratory health status. Specifically within this Hispanic sample, individuals with lower household incomes, whose homes were covered by larger surface areas of mold, and whose families were characterized by increased tension experienced higher odds of post-flood respiratory health problems. Interestingly, greater English-language proficiency and lacking US citizenship were also risk factors. Given that this is one of the first studies of intra-Hispanic disparities in health following a US-based disaster, the findings underscore the importance of considering diversity within the US Hispanic population when studying environmental and post-disaster respiratory health.

Austere, remote, and disaster medicine missions: an operational mnemonic can help organize a deployment

Medical care in resource-limited environments (austere settings) can occur in the context of a disaster, wilderness, or a tactical field operation. Regardless of the type of environment, there are common organizational themes in most successful humanitarian missions that occur in harsh natural or manmade environmental conditions. These principles prioritize the initiation and execution of any given deployment in austere or remote settings, diverging from priorities that would occur in a situation in which change to the existing medical structure is intact and operating well. Attention to these priorities not only helps providers to deliver medical care to people in need during a period of resource limitations but it also can keep providers, teams, the public, and patients safe during and after a deployment.

The impact of learning environment disruption on medical student performance

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to quantify the effects of two distinct and separate disruptions caused by earthquakes to a medical school learning environment on two separate cohorts of Year 5 medical students.

METHODS

The first disruption was caused by an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 that occurred near the end of the academic year but caused minimal physical damage. The second disruption, to a different cohort of students, was caused by a magnitude 6.3 aftershock that occurred at the beginning of the academic year, caused loss of life and widespread damage to the city, and resulted in the closure of the medical school building for 2 years. Using students from the same class, who spent their year in different unaffected cities, as control subjects, and students from previous years in the same city as historic controls, we developed models to compare actual and predicted performances on end-of-year examinations in each of the two cohorts with those in the three previous unaffected year groups.

RESULTS

The predictive models fitted the data well with multiple correlations for the written (R range: 0.69-0.79) and clinical (R range: 0.52-0.69) examinations. Students in the first cohort, for whom the disruption occurred close to end-of-year examinations but had a mild effect on the physical environment, performed slightly (-1.5% to -2.0%) but significantly (p < 0.05) worse than predicted for all three outcomes. Students in the second cohort, who experienced major disruption of their physical environment, performed as expected.

CONCLUSIONS

An unexpected disruption that occurred close to examinations, but which had less physical environmental effect, had a greater impact on assessment performance than a more severe disruption and series of disruptions to which students had time to adapt and which they could work around. Two theories are offered to explain the observations.